Quiet Time Bins

Aren't they lovely? What's that… you want to know what they actually are?

These are the newest addition to my arsenal of tools that I am using to make portions of our daily routine run that much smoother. To my 4 yr old daughter, they are her "quiet time bins". To my 22 mth old, they are simply a fun container of toys that Mommy puts in front of him.

They were initially inspired by an article in Above Rubies, on what to do with little ones while homeschooling. One idea was to create bins with entertaining toys and activities for toddlers, with a different one to pull out for each day of the week. The idea was further inspired by seeing Crystal's bins for her daughter's quiet times- activities that she can do during the 1-2 hours that she spends in her room each afternoon (this is similar to what we do with our daughter).

Abbie helped me put them all together and choose some of the activities. She also traced each of the days of the week, for both sets of bins and helped me tape them on.

Here is a glimpse into a few of Abbie's bins: One has drawing and coloring supplies, another has beading materials, and another has a wooden dress up "doll". Each bin also has 2-3 books that she enjoys.

Here are two of Caden's bins. The first contains measuring cups and colorful counting bears. The second is wooden clothes pins and yogurt containers. His other bins have similar types of creative toys to keep a toddler occupied. All of his bins have 2 board books (read: indestructible) as well.

We've been using Abbie's bins for a week now, and they have definitely helped her to look forward to her quiet times and stay better occupied, and they are also simple for her to clean up afterwords.

Caden's will be implemented this week, as I will be training him to have a "playpen" time (working my way up to 30 minutes at a time) each morning while I do home education (learning time, as we say in our family) with Abbie. He will be given one bin to play with while he stays put in his playpen, which will free me to help Abbie with things like her printing, math, etc.

Are any of you using bin systems like this? What do you use them for and what types of activities do you have in them?

Stephanie Langford has a passion for sharing ideas and information for homemakers who want to make healthy changes in their homes, and carefully steward all that they've been given. She has written three books geared to helping families live more naturally and eat real, whole foods, without being overwhelmed, without going broke and with simple meal planning. She is the creator of Keeper of the Home.

55 thoughts on “Quiet Time Bins”

We have a bin of Busy Bags. Just search “Busy Bags” online and you’ll find hundreds of cheap, easy ways to entertain little ones! We also did a Busy Bag exchange so I only had to make 1 type of busy bag (but I did make 25!) A favorite is sorting colored paper clips into plastic 1 oz cups marked with a single polka dot (which matches one of the colors of paper clips). My 4 year old still does that one!

I know you wrote this a long time ago, but if you possibly remember where that article from AboveRubies is can you direct me? I went on there and did a search but like a hundred things came up and I didn’t see it at all.

@Rose, I dont’ know if it’s actually on the site. I remember reading it in one of my magazines, but I know that not every article is on the website. Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the author or the title, either. Sorry!